An Orange County man has been handed an 18-month sentence for conspiring to ship sophisticated computer servers to Iran, flouting U.S. sanctions. Johnny Paul Tourino, 69, from Dana Point, faced the music in a Los Angeles courtroom for his outlawed dealings, confirmed the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Judge Josephine L. Staton didn't just order prison time; she imposed a $20,000 fine and commanded Tourino to relinquish roughly $2 million in seized funds. Tourino's guilty plea in March pertained to one count of conspiracy to break the International Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA), which monitors exports of particular goods from the United States, amid other sanctions against Iran.
Tourino, who helmed Spectra Equipment Inc., a computer support firm, attempted between 2015 and 2017 to sell and ship five business-class computer servers—worth $2.1 million—to two Iranian banks, violating a host of U.S. strictures, including those imposed on Iran's banks due to their ties to the country's controversial acts abroad. His gambit included funneling the equipment through countries like Slovenia to disguise the final destination as Iran, according to court documents.
After the server manufacturer got wind of the intended users and quizzed Tourino, he lied, stating the hardware was destined for an African bank, “NOT going to Iran.” But when the Treasury Department snagged Iranian funds set to pay for the servers, Tourino scrambled, deleting emails and falsely assuring that the hardware was Slovenia-bound, as per court records.
"Mr. Tourino knowingly violated U.S. law and sanctions by attempting to sell millions of dollars’ worth of computer equipment to Iran and doing business with sanctioned Iranian banks that have been the lifeblood of Iran’s international acts of terror and nuclear weapons program," U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada asserted in a statement obtained by the U.S. Attorney's Office. Authorities also noted Tourino's past dealings, highlighting his 2015 sale of similar servers to the same Iranian bank, Bank Mellat.
The case was tackled by an array of law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Office of Export Enforcement (OEE), and the IRS Criminal Investigation. The result, as Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher described, is a testament to the dedication to national security and the disruption of efforts by adversaries to sidestep U.S. export controls.
